As we noted earlier in this article, Jinder Mahal (with help from The Bollywood Boyz) won the 6 pack challenge on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live to become the #1 contender to the WWE Championship.

Mahal will now get his WWE Championship match at the next SmackDown Live exclusive PPV, Backlash 2017.

Jinder Mahal becomes the #1 contender to the WWE Championship

The reason for Mahal getting a WWE Title shot has to do with WWE planning an expansion in India. The “WWE Shop” was recently launched in India and WWE plans to promote Jinder’s merchandise along with top WWE stars’ merchandise in India.

WWE’s Indian audience makes up for a huge part of the company’s fanbase and WWE has been focusing on India for about two years now and they have taken steps to encourage the Indian viewers to view more of their content by making Raw & SmackDown Live air live in the country (there was a 2 week delay back in the day) and NXT airing on TV (in USA it only airs on the WWE Network).

WWE has also started airing their big 4 PPVs (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam & Survivor Series) live in India and on free TV.

Also, WWE has hired Sheetesh Srivastava as Vice President and General Manager of WWE India and below is the press release:

“India is key to the global growth of WWE, and we are confident Sheetesh will successfully help develop our brand and business in this critically important country. WWE is committed to expanding its presence in India, and we are pleased to welcome Sheetesh to further our efforts in the market.”